Public sector workers earn on average £4,500 a year more than those in the
private sector, with the gap growing broader, new figures show.

A typical full-time employee of the state is paid £565 a week, while their counterpart in the private sector typically earns just £479.

Public sector workers thus earn £86 more a week, up from £84 a week last year.

The pay gap was revealed in a study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which found that the difference in average hourly earnings between workers in the public and private sectors was highest at the bottom end of the scale.

The North East and Northern Ireland had the largest gaps in favour of public sector employees, while in London, public sector workers earned less on average than those in private firms.

David Ruffley, a senior member of the Treasury Select Committee, warned the figures were likely to fuel a sense of injustice that many private sector workers feel.

Related Articles

He told the Daily Mail: “I know businessmen who say they have had to cut their workers’ pay by 20% or they will go bankrupt.

“If that is happening in the public sector, I’ve never heard of it.”

The figures also showed that the gender pay gap for full-time workers had fallen in the past year to under 10%, continuing a downward trend.

The difference between men's and women's median hourly pay, excluding overtime, fell from 10.5% to 9.6%.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "It's encouraging to see the gender pay gap fall again this year.

"The pay gap between full and part-time workers is actually getting worse. This is terrible news for the millions of people who need to work part-time to balance work and caring responsibilities, or who simply can't find full-time jobs.

"Unless we get to grips with the lack of high quality part-time work, we will never tackle in-work poverty.

"Today's figures also confirm that the private sector has far wider pay disparities than the public sector, with its lowest-paid staff receiving less and top staff getting far more.

"Closing the gap between top and bottom pay across the private sector is the best possible way to tackle widening inequality across the UK."